Why Bad things Happen

Pastor Bez Cummings

Sermon • Submitted 5 years ago

Judges 6:11–27

Judges 6:1–10

Problem Of Evil

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Two of the six reasons bad things happen

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Why Bad things Happen

Judges chapter 6

And there came an angel of the LORD, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.

And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said unto him, The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour.

And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? but now the LORD hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.

That is the Million Dollar question isn't it ?

I mean If God is with us than why is all this evil befallen us ?

I mean were are his miracles our fathers told us about ?

He remembered the miracles but he did not remember the trouble their view of the past and view of other people's lives was viewed through rose colored glasses

Remembered the sea opening up but not the earth .

The remembered jericho but they forgot ai

The remembered the salvation but forgot the serpents

He could stop it if he wants to

Where is my red sea ?

Notice he gave Gideon the same answer he Gives you.

And the LORD looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?

God is more interested in giving you instructions in the storm than information about the storm

He is more interested in your path than in your peace

He wants you to go forward by faith when you cannot understand

Gideon did not understand the back story or the front story He did not understand why that conversation was taking place or what would come of it

He had no Idea the answer was happening when it was happening and that is the same way it will be for you and I

But nevertheless the question begs to be answered

IF God be with us why is all this evil befallen us?

Understanding why it happens does give us a certain amount of peace

I was reading a book and in it it listed the six Biblical reasons bad things happened

I wrote them on a napkin stuck them in my desk drawer little metal desk I had in my garage used to study in. did not think anything about it . Than my late wife passed away I was sitting in that room crying and I opened my desk and found that little white napkin folded up.

I read those six reasons and I studied them out and they helped me get through some of the darkest days in my life.

I am going to give you a couple of them tonight.

So that when tragedy strikes and it will. You will have some answers.

It makes it a lot easier to go through it. When God is not the enemy but he is a fried and this will help you understand God is not the villain he is the hero.

it might not be a big deal to you today but these answers will be a big deal when you need them

No although God did not Give Gideon the answer to his question it is in the text and if we do a little investigative research we will be able to find it.

Notice the question again. And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us?

Poor Decisions

And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.

Why did it happen ?

Say it with me because they did evil.

What was that evil

And I said unto you, I am the LORD your God; fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but ye have not obeyed my voice.

Idolatry Instead of fearing the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom they feared the gods of the Land which is the beginning of stupidity and immorality and depravity

When you fear a god you obey him

You want it to rain well the false God will not let you have a good crop unless you go see the shrine prostitute and bring a gift.

You want property offer your child to this God.

And God will not allow his children to keep serving false Gods.

Why is all this evil befallen us

Because of your poor decisions.

people smoke for years get lung cancer and ask why God

not why god why did you smoke all those years

you make decisions and you have to live with the consequences

you cheat on your wife and get divorced it is because of poor decisions

when you get a dui it is because of poor decisions

when you lose your job because of drinking it is poor decisions

when you have marriage trouble because you decided to marry a lost person it is poor decisions the bible says

Numbers 32:23 KJV 1900

But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the Lord: and be sure your sin will find you out.

But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out.

Galatians 6:8 KJV 1900

For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

if you decide to become a homosexual and get aids not God’s fault it is your fault

do not blame God for your own stupidity

Lot decided to go to sodom

His wife decided to look back

His daughters decided to commit incessed with thier father

Than the moabites and ammonites became Israel's enemy why poor decisions

Abraham and Sarah cooked up a solution to their why are we not having kids problem and had ishmael now we have the middle east problem why poor decisions .

I think I remember adam and eve making some bad decisions

And then cain killed abel.

WHy did this happen well there was this tree in the garden and the Lord said you shall not eat of it neither shall ye touch it lest ye die.

Hear this preacher preach a while back he told this story he said when he was at bible college in springfield Mo he said while he was there the head of the government in ethiopia Haile Selassie in the late sixties early seventies he saw how christianity had an effect on the nations were large amounts of the people were christians so he opened the doors to his country and said send 500 or five thousand missionaries in to preach christianity and it will bring the nation out of poverty and help them so a lot of the students in springfield said sign me up we are going and before anyone could go he was ousted from office and the new leadership immediately shut the door on the missionaries and they never came

now when you look at ethiopia it is one of the poorest places on earth and you look over there and aids is rampant and and you see the kids with their extended bellies from malnutrition and you see the life expectancy rate were men die in their fifties you say why God now it was that that nation rejected God and choose another God and he is not treating them very well.

you see we tend to blame everything bad on God but when something Good happens we do not say why me God why me why did you give me a precious baby

why did you give me another day of life why did you give me a raise ?

Let me ask you are there any poor decisions you are making that is causing you pain.

and if you are lost and you have been holding off on getting saved because you think God is a bully why don’t you look at it as he is trying to help us in the mess we have created and come down to this alter and repent and ask a loving God to save you.

Discipline

And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.

Who delivered them? The Lord

You see what Gideon failed to recognize is that God was the reason all this evil was befalling them.

Because in his goodness he was not going to let them continue down the path of sin till there was no turning back.

So he has midian come against them

Now they are hiding

How they are paying attention To God

Now they are crying to the Lord verse 6

If god allowed them to continue they would never have respected them.

Hebrews 12:6–14 KJV 1900

For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:

lost people do not experience this reason because the Lord does not beat the devil's children

but the Lord is a good father and a good father does not withhold correction from his child

if you do not think it is important to discipline your child just go on youtube and type in child temper tantrum

Why a parent would put that up there I have no Idea all you are showing the world is you are the world's worst parent

14 year old boy his mom cancelled his subscription to game of thrones of something he was acting like he was devil possessed he was throwing himself around and screaming and going crazy

the bible says withhold not correction for thy child for if you chasten him with a rod he shall not die but thou shalt deliver his soul from hell.

it is a necessary part of raising children and the Lord is not going to tell you to do it and not do it himself

when he corrects you it brings you behaviour back in line so you do not cause yourself more pain in the long run

and dome of the suffering that takes place in our lives is a result of the Lord’s discipline.

now the hard part is knowing if it is him disciplining you or not

so here is what I do I say Lord I do not know if this is discipline or something else but is there something in my life you want to take care of and get out of my life let me know and I will get it out

and chances are that if you are not living right and the pain is a result of your sin

it could be discipline I would rather take it as discipline and get the problem corrected than ignore it and go through more pain because at least next time you can say that is not the reason this time

let us look at some examples

Psalm 89:30–33 KJV 1900

If his children forsake my law, And walk not in my judgments; If they break my statutes, And keep not my commandments; Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, And their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, Nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.

If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments;

Psalm 89:31–33 KJV 1900

If they break my statutes, And keep not my commandments; Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, And their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, Nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.

-33 If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments;

If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments;

Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.

Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.

Deuteronomy 8:5–6 KJV 1900

Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee. Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him.

Deut 8:5-6 Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee.

Proverbs 3:11–12 KJV 1900

My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; Neither be weary of his correction: For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; Even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.

Deu 8:6 Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him.

1 Corinthians 11:32 KJV 1900

But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.

But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.

He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever.

I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:

But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee.

the difference is he does not take his mercy away from you if you are saved but he still disciplines you

and when that happens you have no business asking the Lord why

just do your time in time out thank the Lord for your whipping and get it right and you will be better in the end because of it.

moses did not go into the promised land because of discipline

miriam got leprosy because of discipline.

but even in those instances God was merciful

so when you are getting disciplined do not get angry be thankful because it helps you in the long run

I am learning the lord is more worried about our future than we are

we are worried about our present and God is not so much concerned with our present as our future

just as a good father disciplines his kids for their good for their future so the Lord disciplines us to make our future better.

talked to a vietnam vet he was very troubled said what bothering you wwll about toi die never told anyone this but I tell you

he said i was in vietnam and i was driving this big truck i was half drunk we were going some were bunch of kids in the road someone told me just go run them over so he said i ran them over in the truck i could still to this day hear their screams.

he said the next day i was sitting in the barracks thinking about that when i got a call from the office they said you have a message waiting for you so he picked up the phone or however he got the message he said go home your family needs you they said your boy just got ran over by a drunk driver in front of your house on his bike and he is dead.

he said i have thought about that everyday since it happened and that is the reason i drink every day to try to forget why it happened he said why did that happen i said the bible says you reap what you so

and the Lord always knows how to orchestrate stuff so that you think about your actions to give you a chance to repent from them I said that is not a coincidence and you need to repent.

But look how mercyful the Lord is to them in their trouble

Seer

And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD because of the Midianites,

That the LORD sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, which said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage;

THey turned to God in the trouble that they brought upon themselves

And God sent them a seer to help them out and explain things to them

I cried to God and he sent the preacher by and he took out his bible and showed me God loved me in the midst of Trouble

Sovereign

God from heaven sent an angel down and super naturally got involved in the problems of men

It is amazing when God super naturally gets involved in the problems we create for ourselves

Soldier

And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said unto him, The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour.

And the LORD looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?

Sign

And he said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, then shew me a sign that thou talkest with me.

Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come unto thee, and bring forth my present, and set it before thee. And he said, I will tarry until thou come again.

And Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour: the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out unto him under the oak, and presented it.

And the angel of God said unto him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did so.

Then the angel of the LORD put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the LORD departed out of his sight.

Sometimes even though we do not need it he gives us a sign he si still at work in our lives.

Solace

And when Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the LORD, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord GOD! for because I have seen an angel of the LORD face to face.

And the LORD said unto him, Peace be unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not die.

Then Gideon built an altar there unto the LORD, and called it Jehovahshalom: unto this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

Means peace while bad things happen he is here to help you through them and give you peace even if it is your fault.

Why Bad things happen

Poor Decisions

Discipline

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